Commuting to the Suburbs…3 Common Questions

Working in the suburbs & residing in the city can be quite the challenge for public transit. Since I started the Low Car Diet, I receive 3 common questions:

1. Can you get to work by the train? How?
2. How long would it take to drive?
3. How do you like the Low Car Diet?

Answers:

1. Yes, I can get to work by public transit. I first have to either walk 20 minutes or take a subway to Suburban Station. Once there, I get the express train to my designated stop. Once I arrive, there’s a shuttle that takes me to work. Although work is 10 minutes from the train station, of course the shuttle takes a round-about route, which takes 22 minutes.  Overall, (if SEPTA isn’t running late), I leave my house at 6:45 and arrive at work at 8:20.  (If I drive and leave my house at 6:40 AM, I stop at my gym to get a workout in and arrive at my desk by 8:45.)
2. If I drive, it can take anywhere from 35 minutes (complete rarity) or up to 2 hours (also complete rarity). I’d say the average is slightly over 1 hour.
3. It’s a change, but I am enjoying it.  Rather than taking as throwing my 5-6 bags in my car each day, I have to limit my baggage to 1-2 smaller bags. I’m catching up on work and reading rather than listening to XPN or frustrated at drivers. Best of all, I get to hear pieces of conversations from other passengers, like the woman who was wondering why people in Northern Liberties wear clothes from the Salvation Army with Burberry jackets. (They’re called hipsters.)

My First Zipcar Drive!

When my good friend Prozzie visited this past weekend, she took the eco-friendly route of bus from DC.  While she could have taken a cab, I instead decided to use a sliver of my Zipcar credit from my Low Car Diet participation and took one out for a spin!

I logged onto the website and debated for about 30 seconds between a Honda and Mini Cooper… being I never have driven a Mini Cooper and it looked way cooler, I chose it.  While it was 1:34, I rented a twin to this car for the 1:30-2:30 timeslot:

(minus the bow.)

I moseyed on over to “Martz”, as she was named and awkwardly attempted to see if my Zipcar card into the driver’s side lock  – mind you, it looks like this:

Clearly a credit card wasn’t fitting in a pinhole.

Luckily, I scanned the driver’s side & windshield and found the barcode to recognize my card on the upper right-hand side, and the door unlocked!

I swung back to my apartment past the alleyway and scooped Prozzie… and started our journey over to 30th St.  About 15 minutes later with a pit stop to a mini-market & a driver making a left turn from my right, I dropped her off.

My trip home was pretty smooth sailing until I pulled up to the spot… and noticed a huge delivery truck with the beverage ramp smack in the middle of the street.  I politely asked the delivery man to move the ramp… When he refused, I tried my best to avoid an altercation. Luckily, I maneuvered into the space and parked the car.

After I finally pulled into the spot & locked the car with 2 minutes to go on my return time, I strided by the young delivery man with a look of accomplishment… in hot pink leggings:

Overall, the Zipcar experience was very easy and fun! Luckily, I ran into no problems, swiftly dropped Prozzie off and returned the car on time. I’m looking forward to my next drive.

Compare & Contrast: Case Study of SEPTA Train Times

For days 1 & 2 of taking the train to work on my Low Car Diet, I had 2 drastically different timings for AM work commute. See below.

Day 1, Wednesday:

• 6:55, walked out door
• 7:01, got to Subway Station
• 7:10, got on Broad St Line
• 7:18, arrived at Suburban Station. Train delayed for 8 minutes
• 7:30-something: Get on Regional Rail Train
• 8:15, get on bus. Sit & wait.
• 8:30, bus leaves parking lot
• 8:58 arrive at office

Day 2, Thursday morning:

• 6:45, walk out door
• 6:50, arrive at subway station
• 6:54, subway arrives
• 7:10: Arrive at Suburban Station
• 7:15, get on Regional Rail
• 7:45, arrive at destination station
• 7:50, Shuttle departs
• 8:18 AM: Walk into office!

Lesson Learned: Shockingly, missing your train by 3 minutes causes apprx 40 additional minutes of travel time…

Low Car Diet – Day 1

For Day 1 of the low car diet, I had a pretty great start.

• 10 AM, kickoff ceremony
• Instead of driving over or mailing my rent check, my best friend tricked convinced me to do a nice little 4 mile loop around the city to help her prepare for the ING Half Marathon on Sunday… incorporating the rent drop off on the way.
• Tried the new google phone app to dial into a call!

I was able to get a LOT-more done and didn’t have the stress of road rage travel!

Zipcar Low Car Diet Kick Off!

Today was the kickoff for Zipcar’s Low Car Diet!

Hopefully it was a good sign that I waited less than 5 seconds for Septa’s Broad Street line to arrive and take me to City Hall.  While waiting, I met several of the enthusiastic Low Car Diet participants all anticipating our car-free month.

Zipcar had impressive stats about their benefits, including

• 1 Zipcar takes off 20 cars off the streets
• More than 50% of last year’s participants gave up their cars for good after their low car diet
• collectively, 1000’s of LBs lost & carbon emissions saved through the Zipcar Challenge

Here are some visuals from the ceremony, starting in City Hall’s Dilworth Plaza:

There were a few speeches – First, Zipcar Philadelphia General Manager; Jeremy Nelson:

Next, as Green Philly Blog author, I was psyched to see  Katherine Gajewski, Philadelphia’s Director of Sustainability, sharing a few words about Philly being the largest car-sharing city:

Here’s one of the Zipcar mini’s we could be using, packed with baskets full of Pop Chips:

Here I am dropping off my keys to start my low-car diet (yes, i realize i’m wayy too short for the microphone in this pic):

And the best part! My bag full of goodies:

I won’t lie. I’m super-psyched to use that aluminum bottle since my SIGG went MIA & I’ve been using one half its size…

Can’t wait to keep you updated on my progress!

SEPTA Commute PlayList

Starting on Tuesday, I’ll be commuting 5-days a week on the former R5 to Paoli.

I starting thinking about what to listen to on my iPod.

Here’s the list thus far:

• First Train Home, Imogen Heap
• Train Song, Ben Gibbard/Feist
• Night Train, Amos Lee
• Stop this Train, John Mayer
• The Uptown Train, Joe Jackson
• Night Train, James Brown
• Home, Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros
• Waiting for the Bus, Violent Femmes
• Magic Bus, The Who
• Riding on a Bus, The Beatles
  

Any suggestions for Train/Public Transit music?

ZipCar’s Low Car Diet!

I stumbled upon this in my inbox last week:

Dear Julie,

Congratulations!

Out of hundreds of applicants, 20 were chosen to take part in Zipcar’s 2010 Low-Car Diet in Philadelphia. And guess what?  You’re one of them!

Originally, I thought there was no way I’d be selected for ZipCar’s Low Car Diet.  Although I co-author Green Philly Blog and ditch my car in the city, I work in the suburbs, forcing a reverse commute 5-days a week.  Sure, I’ve previously contemplated about selling my car, but the commute isn’t easy.

When I first read the above email, I panicked.  How will I get through 30 days carless days commuting to the suburbs?

Once I discussed with my reverse-commute training friend, I realized this is do-able. I’m looking forward to the challenge and keeping this blog updated with my carless journey.  Especially after returning home last evening on I-76 took 1.5 hours….